Please read these first few sentences before you look at the subheadings. I want to be clear about a few points.
First, some pastors are fired for moral failure. This article does not address that category of firing. Second, my article makes some church members the bad guys. I want to be clear that they are the exception and not the rule. Third, I realize that each firing has its unique characteristics. What you will read is a typical pattern, not a fixed sequence of events for every dismissal of a pastor.
This article reflects on seven phases of the firing of a pastor. I have worked with countless pastors who shared their stories with me. These phases are common in many of them. Also, I will use a recent conversation to provide a real narrative of a real pastor in a real church. I made some slight adjustments to protect the identities of the pastor and the church.
Phase 1: The Pastor Made a Decision a Power Broker Did Not Like.
This phase can begin with an individual or with a small group of members. It can be cumulative decisions or one decision. The church I’m using as my case study began with one person who had significant influence in the church. The pastor declined to recommend the power broker’s family member for the open worship minister position.
Phase 2: The Power Broker Forms a Negative Coalition Against the Pastor.
At this point, the pastor has no idea that the power broker is working against him. He is still unaware that any opposition is taking place. The power broker never meets with the pastor. Instead, he goes directly to the personnel committee of the church. It is a strategic move by the power broker. He has considerable influence over five of the seven members. The other two are weak and will not question the power broker. Also, the personnel committee acts as the pastor’s supervisor.
Phase 3: The Negative Coalition Gathers “Fake Facts” Against the Pastor.
The power broker never mentions the issue of his family member not being recommended for the worship minister position. Instead, he leads several of the members of the personnel committee to create a false narrative about the pastor. “He didn’t visit Jane in the hospital when she had surgery.” “He spoke rudely to Marion.” “He made some decisions where he did not have authority.” “People are saying that the pastor hardly ever works.” “People are saying that he is not friendly to anyone.” “People are saying that all the new members who have joined the church under his tenure are causing trouble.”
Phase 4: The Negative Coalition Asks to Meet with the Pastor.
The pastor is caught off guard by the requested and unscheduled meeting with the personnel committee. The pastor contacted me (Thom) to ask if he should be worried. I told him that I was concerned and that he should be prepared even though he couldn’t think of any reason why there would be a problem. The expressions and body language of the personnel committee immediately communicated a bad situation to the pastor when he came to the meeting, especially since he thought most of them were his friends.
Phase 5: The Negative Coalition Presents the Concerns to the Pastor and Asks for his Resignation.
All of the concerns were false and prefaced with these three cowardly words, “People are saying.” The pastor’s first thought is to fight the charges since he knows they are false, but the power broker makes a sinister comment without explanation, “If you do not resign, your family will suffer.” The pastor accepts the four months of offered severance and signs a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). The NDA clearly stipulates that if he says anything negative about the church, he will lose his severance.
Phase 6: The Pastor Announces his Resignation the following Sunday during the Worship Service.
The NDA prevented him from saying anything other than that the dismissal was not due to moral failure. The church is stunned. The absence of any explanation causes the rumor mill to create multiple false narratives.
Phase 7: No One Comes to the Pastor’s Defense.
This church is congregational in its polity. The personnel committee does not have the authority to fire a pastor without a congregational vote. Such is the reason the personnel committee demanded his resignation. Any member of the church could have met with the personnel committee and demanded transparency. But no one was willing to rock the boat. Pastors typically tell me that this phase is the most painful. One pastor called it “the sinful silence of the majority.”
In this particular case, the pastor was able to receive a call to another church just as the severance ran out. Most pastors are not that fortunate. A number of pastors never return to vocational ministry after such a traumatic event. The pastor and his family are traumatized.
In most cases, the church that fires the pastors suffers as well, sometimes for years. One member of the church noted in my story told me, “I will regret forever that I did not speak up. It took me a year to ask my former pastor for forgiveness. Since the evil event took place, it’s like a cloud of darkness is over our church. I wonder if it will ever go away.”
It is a sad story. It is a tragic story.
Sadly, it is a story that is much too common.
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Posted on November 11, 2024
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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101 Comments
I’ve heard of this common narrative. Although I’ve always heard that a pastor should always leave and never due anything that could potential bring about any division within the church. I’m concerned that there is already a cancer that is willfully being overlooked. As a shepherd and as one who will give an account to God, I believe that the NDA should be declined for the sake of dealing with greater sin within the body. I understand that it is a smooth way to have someone step aside but then the pastor always has to deal with the hush money and his conscience. I imagine that many pastors have great need for that money but it will be painful either way (whether he takes it or stands for the sake of Christ). I do know that this could be a matter of personal pride as well for a pastor. I’d love to know your thoughts Thom.
Gary –
First, let me address the general issue of the NDA. The NDA, at one time, was a needed tool to prevent the theft of intellectual property when a person left a company. It was used more sparingly then. Today, it has often become a instrument to hide information or the actions of others. It carries both an implicit threat and an explicit threat: “If you say anything, something bad could happen to you.” As a result, it hinders transparency and sometimes it blocks justice from taking place. It should be a rare occurence in a church. Sadly, the NDA is becoming more common in congregations. I generally don’t like NDAs.
This is harrowing to read, even though I know nothing about anyone involved. May we all be cautious never to get caught up in such a scheme.
May it be so, Simon.
I appreciate this article and the sadness of it is real. I’ve seen this happen, especially the “silence of the majority” because they “love their place at the synagogue” Jn. 12. I also appreciate the caveats you expressed at the beginning. Unfortunately, I’ve seen the other extreme more than I’ve seen what is outlined in this article. A charismatic Pastor no longer qualifies as an elder due to Titus 1 & 1 Tim, 3, but the elders rally to his defense and crush all true and godly questions. Sadly, that is more the norm I’ve seen.
Yes, Devon. There are many other stories from a different perspective.
It’s tragic when churches and pastors behave like the fallen, sinful broken world rather than like the body of Christ. Obviously, the motive in the firing of this pastor was revenge for not endorsing his detractor’s family member as worship leader.
Sadly, you are correct, Dale.
Sounds very familiar.
This side of church life is too common, Les.
I would never go quietly into the night. Don’t be bullied. This is why I prefer a connectional system of church governance. The church cannot fire you without the permission of the committee on ministry of the presbytery and also a presbytery vote if one pushes. The presbytery may require severance pay and often does. And if discipline of church members needs to be carried out, this can and often does happen. In congregational governance, you are swinging in the breeze, all by your lonesome. I’ve known pastors to bring along an attorney, for “advice” if things get bad. It usually sends a powerful message that there will be dire consequences if you are treated unfairly. In my 30+ years of experience as a pastor and as a member of a council, I have found that churches that do this are repeat offenders……
Greg –
Yes, those churches are unaffectionally known as “preacher eaters.”
Yes, thank you.
I have a question: Tom, given your expertise as a pastor, what would you have done in this situation?
What advice do you give pastors in similar situations? Every situation is unique, but what advice can you give when pastors are put in such situations?
This breaks my heart for the church, the pastor, and his family. {I think he should have spoken up}
It is sad to imagine that this church may never recover, which is why I think he should have spoken up.
Thank you,
In His Service,
Rocky
Rocky –
I wish I could say that I would have fought and spoken up. But, if I am truly being transparent and honest, I think I would have made the same decision this pastor did, especially after hearing his concerns for his family. I am not defending my decision in your hypothetical scenario where I was the pastor. I appreciate your asking the question the way you. It’s easy for me to be on the sidelines helping others to decide what to do. I need to ask God to help me walk in others’ shoes before I counsel and advise.
I was an Interim Pastor at a church in Massachusetts that fired their pastor for moral failure. He, in turn, sued the church. Not a good idea; in the congregation were two lawyers, and he lost the case. I came in to provide some stability and normalcy, and to help them find a new settled pastor. Are pastors held to a higher standard? Yes, and that’s appropriate, in my opinion. We model pilgrimage, not perfection, but there ARE limits.
Robert –
Yes, there are limits. The purpose of my article was to focus on pastors who are fired unjustly. I have written on moral failure of pastors more than once, but that was not the purpose of this article.
I served in the ministry for over 40 years and this very same scenario happened to me, but I was serving as an associate pastor and it was the executive pastor (wife of the senior pastor) that was the power broker. It didn’t help, because of my multiple roles at the church, that I also made more money than her. However, I did speak up and cleared my name but the senior pastor had no choice but to ask for me to leave. He said it was the hardest decision in his life, but I agreed that my presence would only cause further stress in his marriage and within the church. I was given 4 months to find a position and an additional 2 months of severance to tide me over. What is even more ironic is the pastor that replaced me had a moral failure 4 years later and they asked me to counsel him and help him restore his marriage.
Brian –
I hurt hearing your story. I know its still feels painful after years have passed. There is indeed so much painful irony in your story.
Yes, sadly, this happens.
In nearly 3 decades of full time ministry I have witnessed a greater problem–not firing a Pastor soon enough. I have seen cases of adultery, but those faded to second place. The new sneaky wolf in sheep’s clothing is the narcissist. They are more and more common. Would love to see you do some research and reporting on this. The failure to act soon enough seems to stem from an unwillingness on the part of Elders to have real accountability with the Pastor–an unwillingness to address sins other than sexual or financial. More and more Pastors are spending less and less time in the office–which is not necessarily a bad thing–but with no accountability as to how they are spending their time for the ministry. As long as they show up and preach on Sunday, the rest of their week is unaccounted for. Danger, Will Robinson!
Another issue that the Church has failed to address is passing on bad actors. When a Pastor does fall, we allow them to resign. We don’t have a way to warn other Churches, because we are afraid we will get sued if we say anything about why they were let go. If they leave the denomination to avoid discipline, they can go freely to an independent Church or another denomination without a consequence. This has to change.
I’ll stop for now, but I would argue that these are some of the greater problems in the Church. Pastors can be victims, but more and more I see them victimizing the Church.
A related trend is
I don’t think that this is what Tom’s article was addressing. You should read it again.
I understand the article. Just saying there are important issues–related to firing Pastors–that also need to be addressed, and I think Thomas would be good at addressing them.
MS –
Yes I understand there are pastors who are the problem. That is why I prefaced my article with that reality. My purpose for this article was to share how “firings in secret” often take place when the pastor is not the problem.
I understand and appreciate this article. Just raising some other important issues that you could address in separate articles. You have a great platform and influence to begin to address these troubling issues as well. That’s all
A couple of things:
1) I don’t like a personnel committee being a pastor’s supervisor. Someone who answers to God for how he oversees my eternal soul should not be supervised by a group of people who may or may not have spiritual or biblical depth. This is something a pastor should really look into before agreeing to come; the method of supervision and evaluation.
2) Whatever process was utilized to install/hire/call a pastor should be the same process to fire a pastor. A power group should not intimidate or bully their will in private. It will be uncomfortable and hurtful, but if a pastor is being bullied into resigning, he should insist on it being as public as possible. If it was a congregational vote (which is the case in most Baptist churches) to hire after discussion then it should be the same process to dismiss. As a deacon in a previous church stated, “as you turn up the lights brighter and brighter, the cockroaches start to scatter.” However the vote turns out, to retain or dismiss, there will be damage, but not anywhere near the damage of a power group imposing its will again and again. Of course, we’re talking about a situation where the pastor didn’t cause the problem.
I get what you are saying, Jeff. In this particular case, he did not want his family to go through a battle. Particularly, he had young kids. He did not want them scarred from church battles. He could have fought. He probably would have won the battle. It is a tough situation, and your points are good.
That’s understandable. The family has to be all in. In your case study, it’s terrible that the power broker knew the untenable dilemma he was putting the pastor in, choosing between his family and commitment to the church,and intentionally moved forward with his diabolical plan.
I have been writing about a few of these steps for awhile now. There are two pieces that I think we have to be wiling to investigate more: 1) False witness. We still believe it’s a sin, don’t we? Dealing with slander/libel rightly while being willing to more thoroughly call it out for what it is is absolutely imperative in the church. When lies are allowed to go unchecked, we are setting up for an utter moral failure. You wrote that this isn’t about moral failure of the pastor but it IS moral failure of the church. 2) Even when there is more governance (ie Presbyterian or other hierarchical denominations) these things still occur. It would be easy to assume they couldn’t. Sadly, I have plenty of stories when the Negative Coalition is made up of church ministry leaders from other churches engaging in the pressure and letting power brokers run the pastors out. And as hard as it is in the situation you described, now imagine what it’s like on a grander scale when an entire Presbytery of 50+ of your colleagues believe lies about you and your character? It’s crushing. And too often career ending.
Robin –
Your points are well made, especially about the moral failure of the church. Yes, these occurences are crushing.